


Learning Curve

by FireSoul



Series: Coming Together [3]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: 2x02, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-08
Updated: 2019-03-09
Packaged: 2019-11-14 02:09:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18043442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireSoul/pseuds/FireSoul
Summary: After being rescued from 1779 Sara and Leonard have to decide if they want to go home and raise their daughter like a normal family, or if the team needs them badly enough that Rory might have to learn young about being a legend.





	1. Welcome Back Legends

They’re back.

They’re back on the Waverider. After all these months the team managed to come back for them. Only now things are a little more complicated, because now they have Rory.

They had never talked extensively about what their involvement with the Legends would be once Rory was born, but considering they had originally intended to leave the ship roughly six months into her pregnancy Sara had assumed their involvement would be on more of an “as needed” basis.

She also never thought “as needed” would come when Rory is barely two months old.

But here they are. Rip may be dead, if he isn’t he’s missing, and he certainly thought he was going to die, because he left them a message of his final wish for them to stick together as a team and go on protecting time.

They’re all gathered around his office, like the answer to where the hell they should go from here is buried somewhere under all the antiques and sadness. Most of them are standing around, lost looks on their faces, but Sara isn’t. No, she’s sitting in one of the armchairs with her shirt partially unbuttoned so Rory can eat. She can feel Len staring at her from halfway across the room, he doesn’t want to broach the subject in front of the team but they do have to think realistically. Yes, Rip’s final message was a plea for the team to stay together, and yes Mileva Einstein still needs to be saved back in 1942, but the two of them also have a baby to think about now.

She can feel the others all stealing glances at her too, as they all know how resistant she was to the idea of getting off the ship during her pregnancy, and they’re wondering what she’ll do now.

Frankly, she’s wondering the same thing.

“So, what are we going to do?” Ray is finally the one to break the silence, though he keeps his focus pointedly away from her.

“We drink.” Mick answers, response automatic, and Len shoots him a glare.

Jax sighs, he’s also sitting down, and he leans over to rest his elbows on his knees.

“We all heard the message.” He says, “I think Rip knew that one day we might have to do this without him. He wants us to keep going.”

“We have to keep going.” Stein seconds, “There’s a rogue time traveler out there somewhere.”

“Yeah, a time nemesis whose idea of fun is helping Damien Darhk and The Nazis blow up New York City.” Sara puts in and the others finally all give themselves permission to look at her, even Len, and she’s ok with that.

“What’s to stop them from going back in time and kidnapping Einstein and his ex-wife again?” Ray asks, bringing the team back to their more immediate, and collective, problem.

“We can’t be everywhere at once.” Mick points out around a mouthful of doughnut that he’s pulled out of somewhere.

“But you can safeguard the Einsteins.” Nate, the new guy who apparently helped find them all, announces. He’s been looking over charts this whole time, Sara might have even forgotten he’s here if it weren’t for the horribly disguised side-eye he’s been giving her.

“Safeguard the Einsteins?” Stein asks as though he’s never heard a more ridiculous sentence in his life. “How?”

Nate grins, “By making one slight alteration to history.”

 

* * *

 

“We need to talk.”

They’re getting ready to go back out into 1942, this time to convince Albert Einstein to credit his ex-wife in her contributions to his work so that she won’t be able to be kidnapped and exploited by Damian Darhk. Sara is just getting Rory into an era appropriate dress when Leonard finally works up the nerve to sidle up in their doorway. He’s holding both their disguises for the 40’s slung over his arm, and he knows they’re both going to put them on and go out there.

But still, they need to talk.

“I know,” she says, sparing a glance to him before turning her attention back to their squirming daughter.

They’re going on this mission to serve as back up, all three of them, but after that…

“We can’t leave them.”

She actually stops trying to dress Rory, if only for a second, when he says that. She wasn’t expecting that, and if he’s being honest with himself there is a part of him that thinks he shouldn’t have said it. Suggesting they stay on the Waverider, knowing full well the risks that come with it, with Rory now thrown into the mix, is just asking for trouble.

“History needs protecting.” Sara seconds and he nods, his eyes drifting down to the tiny baby lying on their bed as he steps into the room.

She’s so small, so dependent on them, on Sara in particular. She has to come first in this decision, before the team and before history. If they think for even a second that staying on the ship might be too dangerous for her they’ll leave, whether Rip is dead or not. But, if Leonard is being honest with himself, the Legends aren’t the only ones who are going to need all the help they can get. He and Sara are still new to this whole parenting thing, clearly evidenced by their decision to bring their two-month-old on a mission. Much as it pains him to admit it, it probably wouldn’t hurt to have some help with getting the hang of it.

“We’ll have to make sure we’re careful.” He says, and of course Sara smirks at him.

“We will.” She promises, and then she bends over to scoop up little Rory into her arms to cuddle her close to her chest. “Besides, with this team, I have a feeling she’ll be just fine.”

Len smirks this time, well aware that she’s right, and then Sara hands their daughter over to him in a trade for the clothes he’s brought in.

“Now,” she says once the hand off is done. “If you’ll excuse me, I have to go see Gideon about putting weapons in a 1940’s stroller.”

* * *

 

The mission to safeguard the Einsteins goes off without a hitch, but the ambush that follows puts a little bit of a bummer on it and ends with them all battered, bruised, and locked up in a rather large cell in the Justice Society of America’s headquarters.

“You just had to mention time travel didn’t you?” Mick huffs at Stein while they’re all sitting and/or standing around and licking their wounds, so to speak.

Sara ignores him; she doesn’t have time to referee a potential fight right now, she’s too busy pacing and trying to soothe her screaming baby.

Let the record show that Rory is, by all accounts, fine. She didn’t get hurt per-say, but her stroller did get pushed a few feet at an alarming speed before Leonard stopped it and grabbed her. So she’s a little freaked out, but otherwise she’s ok.

“Yeah, well at least he didn’t throw the first punch.” Ray says, and Martin snaps that he’s perfectly capable of defending himself.

Mick growls, and then spins on his heel to where she’s pacing around.

“Could you _please_ shut that kid up?!”

“Oh like I’m not trying?” She snaps back at him.

“For the record, Miss Lance,” Stein starts, his hands trembling in frustration as he brings them up on either side of his head. “What were you even _thinking_ bringing an infant on a mission?”

“What was I thinking?” She scoffs, “I was thinking my part in this mission was supposed to be limited to standing outside a saw mill, waiting for you three clowns to come back from a conference!”

“Yes, because our missions have such a track record of going without complications.” Stein scoffs, that judging look in his rolling eyes, and so help her if she weren’t holding Rory she might strangle him right now.

“I want to point out that Sara didn’t make that call alone.” Leonard speaks up from where he’s been slumped against the cell bars. “Rory’s my daughter too. We both made the decision to bring her out there.”

“And what a grand decision it was!” The ever-brilliant professor exclaims, marching up to Leonard who glares at him, uninterested and yet threatening all at once. “We were enveloped in darkness, Mr. Snart, the entire world black around us! It’s a miracle the only harm done to her was her stroller being pushed to the side!”  
Len hold’s the professor’s hard gaze for a moment, everyone else in the cell watching intently because they _all_ know what it is that Stein is just barely restraining himself from saying.

“Sara,” Len finally grits out with murder in his eyes, “Give me the baby.”

Sara only hesitates for a second, because if Stein keeps talking she’s going to need an anchor as well. But she complies, and while Len switches easily into loving father mode trying to calm their daughter, she places herself safely on the other side of Mick. If Stein opens his mouth again and actually says what he’s been hinting at she is confidant their resident arsonist will be able to restrain her long enough for Ray, Jax, or maybe even Nate, to defuse the situation.

They’re still arguing, though now the topic has shifted to the fight itself rather than to Rory’s presence there, and Rory has calmed down considerably, when two members of the JSA walk in.

The first is Commander Steel, who Nate had named during the fight, and the other is a woman with dark hair in a black and yellow suit.

While Steel is busy accusing Nate, and possibly the rest of them, of being Nazi spies Sara notes the woman’s hard and disgusted glare is trained specifically on her.

Then Nate drops the bomb that he’s Steel’s grandson, and suddenly she doesn’t have time to focus on the woman anymore.

That new information at least gets them out of their cell and an audience with the entire JSA, including Rex Tyler.

“Tell me what the heck is going on here.” He demands, because apparently he doesn’t know them yet.

Great.

“Well we tried explaining bu-”

“I’m sorry, ma’am.” Rex interrupts her, sternly. “I was addressing the team leader.” He says with a gesture to Stein and at least everyone on the team has the decency to look uncomfortable with his tone towards her.

Stein, clearly caught off guard as well, quickly adjusts and explains to him who they are and why they came here.

“We’re superheroes,” Ray simplifies it, “Like you guys.”

“You think you’re just like us?” The blonde teenager in the star spangled leotard almost laughs, “You brought a baby onto the battlefield.”

Sara narrows her eyes, and she can feel Len doing the same next to her. However he happens to still be the one holding the baby that is apparently such a problem for everybody so she knows that while his eyes may be on the teenager, his attention is carefully trained on her.

She isn’t the only one aware of this, at least in part, because Nate has been with them barely one day and even standing in front of her he can pick up on enough of the tension behind him to take a very wise half a step to the side, ready to try and stop her if this goes on further.

“Um… That was really more of a… situation that couldn’t be helped, for the moment.” Stein says, though he is a terrible liar and that is exactly what those words sound like coming out of his mouth, which Sara hates possibly more than all the unspoken accusations about her and Leonard’s parenting skills.

Regardless the conversation soon moves on to Mick and Ray giving brief backstories of themselves; and when the dark haired woman asks about any more felons Mick has no problem sharing the information that Leonard is a felon, and she is a never convicted assassin.

And there’s that glare again.

Stein butts in to explain their first meeting with Rex in 2016 before anything more can come of the conversation, but for Sara the damage is done.

Maybe she and Leonard do need to rethink their parenting techniques.

 

* * *

 

After all is said and done, after the JSA finally lets them go under the condition that they NEVER come back, Leonard finds Sara back in their room. She had barely stuck around the bridge long enough to shut everyone up and let Stein take over as team leader, something he’s still pretty sure is a terrible decision.

But, he has a more personal team dynamic to worry about right now.

“Didn’t think you’d be so gun-ho about The Professor taking over as Captain.” He says as he comes into the doorway, and she barely spares him a look up.

Rory is in a bassinette Gideon fashioned for her, sleeping by the looks of it when he steps in and peeks over the edge. Sara is sitting crisscross on their bed, her eyes glazed over like she’s in a trance staring at their baby, and not in the good way.

“Maybe we should go home.”

Len’s face flickers into a frown; even though he had a feeling she was going to say that, he still hates to hear it. Even if the thought has crossed his own mind, despite it having only been a few hours since they made the opposite decision, he doesn’t like hearing her suggest it. If it was her honest opinion that would be one thing, but she sounds so defeated. He doesn’t want her thinking like that.

He joins her on the bed and she wordlessly scoots over to make room for him, her eyes still locked on their sleeping daughter.

“Is this about what Stein was getting at?”

She shrugs, “Stein, Stargirl, that other woman who kept glaring at me.” He rolls his eyes; he had noticed that woman too.

“Len who are we kidding? Our lifestyle is way too dangerous for a baby. What if she starts crying for no reason on a mission? Or what if she needs to be fed, or changed? Bringing her along could get her killed, it could get us or one of the others killed.”

“Ok, ok.” He whispers, his voice firms as he places his hands on her shoulders and begins rubbing gentle little circle as she shifts to face him.

She’s getting hysterical, her hormones are still a bit of a mess since giving birth and that isn’t helping anything right now. He continues to whisper nonsense to her, pulling her gently into him and letting his arms wind around her back while she leans her head against his chest. She isn’t crying, maybe just one or two tears from the stress that after a few deep breaths are gone as quickly as they’d come on. He waits until she’s been quiet for more than long enough to pull back, his hands once again on her shoulders.

“Look,” he says, “We never said this was gonna be easy, and we’re definitely going to have to switch her over to bottles if we do this.”

She chuckles at that, because that is pretty much a given and also considerably low on their concerns list right now, but if she needs him to state the obvious to bring a smile to her face then so be it.

“There are going to be some missions, especially now while she’s so young, where one of us might have to stay behind with her. If you want to go home, then we’ll go home. But honestly Sara, I don’t think there is anywhere that Rory is safer than with this team.”

He can tell that she wants to argue that, or at the very least laugh at the fact that he of all people is so confident in this team’s ability to raise a child. She does let her small smile of amusement stay, something of growing confidence behind it, and-

“I am sorry to interrupt.” Gideon says from above, her voice quieter than usual as so to keep from waking Rory. “But I believe you may want to report to the bridge, there seems to be an issue.”

Of course there does.

The issue turns out to be the discovery that history is changing, and the entire JSA is about to die. So they’re going back to Paris 1942, despite Rex Tyler basically banishing them from that year, and Stein is leading the charge.

Oh boy.

“Ouch,” Sara comments when she walks into the cargo hold later, while the team is getting ready to head out. Nate’s in there, buttoning up his shirt over a very large bruise. “Where’d you get that?”

“Uh, it must have happened when I fell after my grandfather decked me.” The excuse isn’t a good one, but she’ll play along. “Hey, why aren’t you dressed?”

It’s a pathetic way to change the subject, but Sara humors him and looks down at herself, clad in sweats.

“Something tells me a Nazi nightclub isn’t exactly the best place for a baby.” She explains, “I’m gonna run comms from here.”

“Got’cha,” Nate says with a nod, “Hey, where do I go to get a gun?”

This man is an idiot.

“You ever shoot someone before?”

“I mean, I may not be trained by the League of Assassins, but I can take care of myself.”

She folds her arms across her chest, trying to figure out the best way to let him down easy, or if she should bother with that at all.

“Well I have been trained by The League of Assassins.” She tells him, “And they taught me a lot of things. But let me tell you something I learned as a Legend, the hard way. A big part of being on a team is knowing when you’re in over your head.”

There’s a flicker in his eyes that she can see is a debate on whether or not to tell her she should take her own advice, or maybe that’s just her own guilty conscience interpreting it. Either way he doesn’t say it, which she’ll take as a small mercy after all the dirty looks and comments she’s endured today.

“So I’m part of the team?”

She doesn’t dignify that with an answer, mostly because it isn’t her call to make. Instead she leaves him be, and hopes he’ll make the smart choice and stay behind with her.

Which of course, he doesn’t.

He goes with the team, and with Rory still sleeping Sara uses her newfound alone time to hit the training room, her comm active in her ear so that she can monitor as promised. They’re after a man named Krieger, who is after something important apparently. Nate, to his credit, somehow manages to get close to their target and reports that he’s after something called the Askaran Amulet. Once he gives her that information Sara starts for the library to do some research, and that is when she hears the unmistakable sounds of a bar brawl in her ear.

Same old Legends.

Rory has just woken up when Gideon opens the loading bay, so she brings her along to the bridge.

“Well congratulations, you guys managed to pick a fight with Nazi’s in less time than it takes a two-month-old to take her nap. Kind of wish I’d been there.” She comments as Len takes Rory from her, not even trying to hide the smile he always has for his daughter.

The JSA hardly gives her a second look, aside from the dark haired woman, she looks about as distrusting as Oliver Queen on a bad day.

“I think it’s important now for all of us to stop arguing.” Martin says, clearly she had walked in on the middle of something.

“Does your team ever stop arguing?” Rex Tyler asks of their newly appointed Captain, who concedes to the point.

Well, better step in.

“I think what Martin is trying to say is we’re gonna help you whether you like it or not. You’re going after Krieger. We know where he’s going next.”

“And given the laws of temporal mechanics,” Martin tags back in, his focus set onto Commander Steel. “If you die, your grandson ceases to exist.”

There is barely a pause before Steel steps forward.

“Well, I don’t pretend to understand any of this time travel bunk, but these fellas do have a timeship. Might come in handy.”

“And having them as our backup might be the only way to keep them out of trouble.” The ever-scowling woman seconds, her glare fixed on Sara as usual.

The JSA then votes ever so kindly to accept their help

On that note she leads Martin, Rex, and the woman who seems to hate her into the library and has Gideon pull up a file on the Askaran Amulet, followed by giving their guests a brief explanation as to what Gideon is. The mystery woman apparently saw Krieger and his men with a map of a forest, so they know where the exchange is going down.

Now it’s time to move out.

“Hey,” Sara says to the woman as the two of them head out of the library, and when the woman turns to face her it’s probably the first time she hasn’t looked completely disgusted.

Still, she wants to clear up whatever their problem is.

“Look, if you have a problem with me can you just say it?”

The woman hesitates a moment, which Sara was not expecting, and then she squares her shoulders and meets her eyes.

“I grew up in a small village, where women keep their babies with them while doing chores, and protecting the village, if need be. I understand doing what you need to do, but you’re baby could’ve been seriously hurt today.”

Sara purses her lips, she had known this woman’s judgments had to do with her as a mother, but she sounded more worried than judgmental when she actually gave voice to her words, and that was somehow comforting.

“What would you do?” She asks, her hands on her hips but shoulders sunk in a show of tiredness she doesn’t often allow herself to show. “If you got lost in time, had a baby, and then got picked back up to find out your leader was dead?”

The woman looks unsure for a moment, like she’s debating between saying something that is actually helpful and something that is offensive, or questioning the comment about their leader being dead.

“I don’t know,” she finally comes out with, “Maybe get something a little more secure than a stroller?”

 

* * *

 

Leonard is in the med bay, not for anything medical, but for a flat surface to change Rory on, when the new guy walks in.

He glances up at him out of habit, then back down to the wriggling daughter he is attempting to slide a clean diaper under, and then back up because his brain has processed what he’s seen.

The bottom right sleeve of the new guy’s coat is completely soaked through with blood.

“Uh…” he gapes as the guy shrugs off his coat, revealing a bandage that is practically falling off it’s so soaked.

The guy glances casually at him, no signs of alarm whatsoever in his demeanor or on his face.

“One of the Nazi’s had a knife.” He excuses, unconcerned even as some blood starts dripping onto the floor.

Rory’s starting to fuss now, more than she was already, and so while the new guy goes about calmly changing his bandage Len finishes up his own task and then lifts his daughter up against his chest.

“That was almost an hour ago, it should’ve stopped bleeding.”

The new guy shrugs, still unconcerned, and finally the pieces start to click.

“Sara told me about your bruise.” He says, almost conversationally, almost. “Said it was pretty bad.”

The guy doesn’t say anything, just shrugs, and Leonard sighs as he takes a step forward.

“I’ve seen a lot of cuts and bruises in my life, enough to know when something is taking too long to heal and there’s a problem.” He pauses, gives the historian a minute to fess up, but of course he doesn’t. “You’re a hemophiliac.”

The eye roll he gets is more than enough of a confirmation, but even so the man doesn’t say anything, and instead chooses to simply return to wrapping up his new bandage.

“Your blood doesn’t clot Nathaniel.” He says, hiking Rory up a little higher. “Your wounds can’t heal, and if it’s bad enough you can bleed to death.”

“Yeah, you know who else on this ship can die from what most people might consider a minor injury?” He snaps, “Your daughter.”

He can feel his eyes narrow to slits, his hold on Rory tightening just enough to remind him that he can’t do anything violent, and that beating this man to a pulp would probably kill him. Still, a small part of him does manage to find a sliver of respect for the way the historian hasn’t backed down, hasn’t even faltered, and is holding his gaze evenly.

“You can protect her.” Heywood finally says, “Everyone else thinks you and Sara are nuts, but we’re trusting that you can protect her.”

Len doesn’t allow his gaze to falter even as his blood begins to cool, and Heywood picks back up with his bandage.

“So maybe you should trust that I can protect myself.”

He leaves with that, his wound only half wrapped but he takes his bandage with him, and Len finally allows himself to exhale and look down at his daughter, who is staring back at him.

“Let me guess,” he huffs in almost feigned annoyance. “You’re on his side.”


	2. Just Fine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so I should not have made this two chapters, I didn't realize how short the second one would be. But oh well, here we are.

When all is said and done, when the JSA is saved and they’re leaving 1942 for hopefully longer than ten minutes this time, things have taken yet another unexpected turn of events.

Then again, when looking at it in retrospect, Leonard doesn’t think it’s actually all that surprising.

They’d left Rory on the ship with Jax and Stein, and thank God they did, because Krieger turned himself into a hulk monster using some super serum and nearly killed them all.

Hell, he probably would have killed them if Sara hadn’t stepped up when The Professor started stuttering incoherently over the comms.

“So this morning we were considering leaving.” He says as he strolls into his and Sara’s room, her sitting on their bed feeding Rory. “And now you’re the Captain.”

She chuckles, smirking at the irony. It’s just then that Rory decides she’s full and Sara shifts her to her shoulder to burp her.

“Like you said, we can’t leave the team.” Rory gives a little burp, making them both smirk. “Besides, we kept her safe today, and if we can keep her safe during a fight with a Nazi berserker, we can keep her safe during anything.”

He smiles, walking closer to her until he’s looming over the bed, and he leans down to kiss her, and then even further to kiss Rory.

They’re going to be just fine.


End file.
